Death reported of Pearse McAuley

Garda killer Pearse McAuley has been found dead at his home in his native Strabane, Co Tyrone.

The death was reported overnight by a number of media outlets north and south of the Border.

The ex husband of Cavan Sinn Féin TD Pauline Tully, McAuley had been living in the north since his release from prison in June 2022.

He was jailed for the violent stabbing of his former wife at the home they once shared in Kilnaleck on Christmas Eve 2014.

It appears the former Provisional IRA man may have been dead for a number of days, and it's believed he has died from natural causes.

McAuley, who was in his late 50s, previously served a sentence for killing Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996, for which he was released from prison in 2009.

He previously hit headlines in 1991 as one of several inmates who broke free from London's infamous Brixton prison.

Ms Tully married McAuley in 2003 while he was still serving his sentence in Castlerea.

McAuley was later disowned by republicans following the shocking 2014 attack on his wife.

In an interview with The Anglo-Celt back in January 2022 ahead of McAuley's expected release, Deputy Tully spoke of the horrifying ordeal, and how McAuley forced their two young boys to say goodbye to their mother.

Asked with McAuley’s release date nearing, does she feel safe, Ms Tully answered: “He’s served his time. He’s going to be out and all I can hope for is that he will keep his distance."